SALES Rocket Science/CAA Media Finance/UTA Independent Film GroupīUZZ This mob comedy stars Collette as an unsuspecting suburban woman who inherits her grandfather’s mafia empire. STARS Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude LawīUZZ Arguably the most star-studded package at AFM this year, this World War II drama follows the incredible career of Lee Miller (Winslet), a glam fashion model who in midlife became a war photographer exposing the atrocities of Nazi Germany. SALES UTA Independent Film Group/ WME (domestic), Cornerstone (international) STARS Millicent Simmonds, Rachel BrosnahanīUZZ Biopics remain a safe bet for independent distributors, and this project, featuring A Quiet Place star Simmonds as legendary deaf and blind activist Helen Keller (Brosnahan plays her teacher, Anne Sullivan) also screams awards-season success. SALES UTA Independent Film Group (domestic), Protagonist Pictures ( international)
Banks plays a traditional housewife who is overjoyed at the prospect of a second child until the pregnancy threatens her own life, forcing her to seek help from an underground abortion network. courtrooms, this ’60s-set period drama looks especially timely. Here’s THR‘s look at some of the hot titles.īUZZ With the battle for women’s reproductive rights returning to U.S. The best new projects at AFM 2021 aim to break through the digital static and convince distributors to take a chance and put them out in cinemas worldwide. But despite the Russo warning, producers and sales outfits logging in have not (yet) given up on theatrical. It’s appropriate then, that the American Film Market will this year again be an all-digital affair, with online screenings and Zoom pitches. Sylvester Stallone Unveils Art Retrospective in Germany Studio blockbusters ( No Time to Die, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) are sucking up all of the oxygen and booking up all of the screening slots in movie theaters, leaving the streamers to take the place of specialty distributors. Russo, whose indie company AGBO has produced features for Netflix ( Extraction), Amazon ( Citadel) and Apple TV+ (Tom Holland starrer Cherry), can point to early signs from the post-lockdown cinema market as evidence for this thesis. It’s the easiest thing for Netflix to greenlight, and nobody really bothers you. “You get more money to make them digitally. “I don’t see a resurgence of independent movies at theaters I just don’t,” said Russo, speaking at the Rome Film Festival’s MIA Market on Oct. No less an authority than director Joe Russo ( Avengers: Endgame) has sounded the death knell for the independent theatrical business.